Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

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Aushiker
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Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Aushiker » Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:30 pm

Image

which means ...

For cyclists the message is simple: breaking the road rules puts you and others around you at serious risk. Flouting road rules not only stirs road rage but also reinforces the idea that we, cyclists, are car-hating maniacs with a death wish!


Very disappointing to see the Amy Gillet Foundation apparently supporting this sort of message and reinforcing hopefully unintentionally the message that "share the road" means get out my way ...

The full blog and more on the "campaign" by the NSW NRMA in their blog.

Andrew

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby sumgy » Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:42 pm

Interesting spin.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby il padrone » Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:52 pm

....and it probably has at least 4 lanes :|


I'd place the greater portion of responsibility for changing behaviour to "share" on many of our motorists.
Mandatory helmet law?
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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby yugyug » Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:34 pm

I'd be ok if the first 'tip' for cyclists "follow the road rules" was ALSO the first 'tip' for drivers... Say What.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby find_bruce » Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:53 pm

NRMA is an organisation for motorists after all :roll:

A very different spin from Fairfax
Road safety campaign targets drivers and cyclists
Image
Cyclists and drivers will be targeted in the same campaign. Photo: Wolter Peeters

New safety adverts are aiming to dispel the “blame game” between cyclists and drivers and change the culture of both groups, road safety advocates say.

It is the first time cyclists and drivers will be targeted in the same campaign which is reiterating the need for each group to follow the road rules.

“We're trying to break down the culture at the moment,” said Director of the NSW Centre for Road Safety Marg Prendergast.

“They each think the other is arrogant. We need drivers to be more accommodating to cyclists and cyclists need to be more predicable.”

The “Two Way Street” campaign is being launched on Friday by Transport NSW, the NRMA, NSW Police Force, Bicycle NSW and road safety advocacy group the Amy Gillett Foundation.

“Its theme is mutual respect,” said the foundation's CEO Tracy Gaudry.

“What we're trying to do is reduce the temperature between bike riders and motorists.”

For cyclists the main messages are to be predictable, be alert and be seen, while drivers are being told to leave at least a metre gap between themselves and a rider, indicate early and watch their speed.

There have been 17 cyclist fatalities in the past 14 months, according to Transport NSW, an increase from the same period the previous year.

Just over half of the deaths involved riders aged 30-49 years old while the cause of fatalities ranged from head on crashes, out of control riders, to when a cyclist has hit an object on the road like a traffic control device.
While there is still some room for criticism, such as skipping over the significant cause of death of being hit by a car from behind or beside, it is a much more balanced message.

Anyone read the fish & chip wrapper ?

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Aushiker » Fri Feb 28, 2014 2:07 pm

yugyug wrote:I'd be ok if the first 'tip' for cyclists "follow the road rules" was ALSO the first 'tip' for drivers... WT?.
Yep and stand up and say road rage is not okay period, end of story etc. Instead we get blamed for it.

Andrew

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Aushiker » Fri Feb 28, 2014 2:13 pm

find_bruce wrote:While there is still some room for criticism, such as skipping over the significant cause of death of being hit by a car from behind or beside, it is a much more balanced message.


I don't want a balanced message, I want a message which reflects what actually happens ... ~ 80% of motorists at fault in crashes involving cyclists .. start telling the truth and reflect this is the campaign and they need to get this message across to their (NRMA) blogger(s). There own message in my view in that blog was nothing like this and frankly cyclists breaking the law is not in anyway in the league of motorists breaking the law in respect to possible negative outcomes so the equal blame message just simply fails to recognise the reality.

Until we stop kidding ourselves and wake up to what is actually happening: There is enough data for starters putting motorists at fault in ~ 80% of crashes involving cyclists - equal blame? No; road toll speaks for itself; injury rates speak for themselves; the infringement levels speak for themselves.

Lets not blame anyone is the wrong message: it screams no responsibility ... I see enough of that at work in a non-threatening arena and the real outcomes of it, I don't want it our roads as well.

Andrew

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby find_bruce » Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:51 pm

Andrew as I understand it this is intended to be a response to the 17 cyclists who died in NSW in 2013. I am away ATM & don't have access to the detail but IIRC there were 3 crashes where no other vehicle was involved & at least 3 that appear to have been the cyclists fault.

I recall being surprised that the % of cyclists at fault was as high- relying on my faulty memory it was closer to 40% for 2013 in NSW.

I can only think of one "breaking the law" & that was the Finnish man who was on the wrong side of the road

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Aushiker » Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:17 pm

find_bruce wrote:I recall being surprised that the % of cyclists at fault was as high- relying on my faulty memory it was closer to 40% for 2013 in NSW.
Care should be taken with small sample sizes of course. The resaearch that I am aware of that supports the ~ 80% figure is:

Lindsay, V.L. (2013). Injured cyclist profile: An in-depth study of a sample of cyclists injured in road crashes in South Australia (CASR112). Adelaide, Australia: University of Adelaide, Centre for Automotive Safety Research.

Plus various news reports etc ...

Anderson, S. (2014, January 21). Police urge Wyndham drivers and cyclists to take more care after a jump in the number of cyclists hit by cars. Leader Community Newspapers

Johnson, M. (2011, October, 21). Helmet-cam captures bike accidents (and could make cycling safer) - The Conversation

There was also a Sydney Morning Herald article where a reference was made to a figure above 80% and a related research report. For some reason I didn't keep the details :(

Other related research I am aware of but I haven't done an meta-analysis of so it may or may not be relevant. Only some links due to copyright issues, however I do have copies of all the papers IIRC.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau (2006). Deaths of cyclists due to road crashes. Canberra, ACT: Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Ballestas, T., Wilkinson, C. & Weeramanthri, T. (2011). Rise in bicycle-related injury hospitalisation rates in middle-aged adults, 2000-09. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 35(6), 580-581.

Boufous, S., de Rome, L., Senserrick, T. & Ivers, R. (2012) Risk factors for severe injury in cyclists involved in traffic crashes in Victoria, Australia. Accident Analysis & Prevention, Volume 49, 404–409

De Rome, L., Boufous, S., Senserrick, T,, Richardson, D., & Ivers, R. (2011). The pedal study: Factors Associated with bicycle crashes and injury severity in the ACT. The George Institute for Global Health.

Haworth, N. & Debnath, A. K. (2013). How similar are two-unit bicycle and motorcycle crashes? Accident Analysis & Prevention, 58, 15-25.

Henley, G. & Harrison, J. E. (2009). Serious injury due to land transport accidents, Australia 2006-07. (Injury Research and Statistics Series Number 53). Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Joint Standing Committee on Road Safety. (2010). Inquiry into motorcycle and bicycle safety (Report 5/54). Sydney, NSW: Parliament of New South Wales.

Johnson, M., Newstead, S., Oxley, J. & Charlton, J. (2013). Cyclists and open vehicle doors: Crash characteristics and risk factors. Safety Science, 59, 135-140. – Added November 2013

Pai, C. (2011). Overtaking, rear-end, and door crashes involving bicycles: An empirical investigation. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 43(3), 1228-1235.

Schramm, A. J., Rakotonirainy, A. and Haworth, N. L. (2010) The role of traffic violations in police-reported bicycle crashes in Queensland. Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 21(3). pp. 61-67.

Thompson, P. E., Hill, D. L. (2010). Reported Road Crashes in Western Australia 2007. Road Safety Council of Western Australia.

Regards
Andrew

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby il padrone » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:28 pm

From Aushiker's summary:
•Close to 40 per cent of all crashes in the study involved an oncoming vehicle turning right across the path of a cyclist who was continuing straight.
Why I am very happy to continue running my dynahub lights in daylight hours.

•All night-time or early morning/late afternoon cases where the use of lights were warranted, the cyclists where using lights
Scandalous how irresponsible those cyclists are eh ? :roll: :twisted:

•Lycra was the dominant choice of clothing, with 66% of the riders reporting they where wearing cycling specific clothing of this type
Ahah ! Lycra is the cause of cyclist crashes :twisted:
Mandatory helmet law?
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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby trailgumby » Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:57 pm

I vaguely remember the fatality figures for 2013 were something of the order of 40% for NSW and was likewise surprised. Saw it in the Herald I think.

There was a high proportion of single vehicle bike crashes last year, like the one at Kurnell where the rider struck debris allegedly dropped by a tiptruck, and others where the rider strayed onto the wrong side and struck an oncomng car. There was a breakdown of the incidents as I remember it so not much scope for arguing with the percentage.

Still, a sizeable majority of incidents are the fault of drivers.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby zero » Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:55 pm

trailgumby wrote:I vaguely remember the fatality figures for 2013 were something of the order of 40% for NSW and was likewise surprised. Saw it in the Herald I think.

There was a high proportion of single vehicle bike crashes last year, like the one at Kurnell where the rider struck debris allegedly dropped by a tiptruck, and others where the rider strayed onto the wrong side and struck an oncomng car. There was a breakdown of the incidents as I remember it so not much scope for arguing with the percentage.

Still, a sizeable majority of incidents are the fault of drivers.

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It varies from year to year, there are years where most of the fatalities are rural rear enders.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby roberto73 » Sat Mar 01, 2014 8:12 am

the whole lollipop campaign can be seen here
http://cyclesafe.gofundraise.com.au/cms/driveriderules" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the Centre for Road Safety website doesnt even give the campaign a mention so far.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Aushiker » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:39 pm

I found the reference to the article I previously mentioned which suggested 88% of motorists at fault in NSW motorists versus cyclist crashes.

Robertson, J. & Saulwick, J. (August 31, 2013). Close encounters of the hostile kind. The Sydney Morning Herald. The article suggests 88% of motorists at fault in cyclist versus motorist incidents.

Andrew

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby g-boaf » Sun Mar 02, 2014 8:25 pm

Why should I obey the law with regards to red lights as a cyclist, when TWO motorists today went roaring past me to go through the red light. I stopped for an orange, and they both came from far back to run the red, at a major intersection. :roll:

Perhaps they don't deserve any new roads until they can prove that they are capable of obeying the law?

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Xplora » Sun Mar 02, 2014 10:59 pm

+1 Aushiker. The data is stunning swayed against cyclist responsibility for crashes.

Here is the wild thing - everyone can understand that a cyclist has a higher vulnerability when they are involved in an at fault accident, where they caused their collision with the road/car/etc compared to a car driver... yet this acceptance of the vulnerability only seems to be allowed when the cyclist is totally responsible for their misery. It isn't afforded to them when it is not within their ability to control - driver actions, bad road surfaces (I'm scarred by Boognoss' crash vid on the M7 on ramp)...

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby chucknitro » Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:42 am

g-boaf wrote:Perhaps they don't deserve any new roads until they can prove that they are capable of obeying the law?
Nice try - but they pay registration!! ;)
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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby sumgy » Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:15 am

What has new roads and cyclist safety/driver inattention got to do with anything?
What is needed is a commitment from the government to actually protect cyclists.
This should be particularly so in areas which are recommended by them as bicycle thoroughfares.
Traffic calming and reduced speed limits would be a start to remove cars from these areas where we should have an even greater expectation of our safety.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Xplora » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:48 pm

Any suggestions on appropriate traffic calming, sumgy?

I ask because I've found calming devices to be absolutely diabolical from a cyclist's perspective. The more space they have, the less likely they are to be close to me!

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby sumgy » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:57 pm

Xplora wrote:Any suggestions on appropriate traffic calming, sumgy?

I ask because I've found calming devices to be absolutely diabolical from a cyclist's perspective. The more space they have, the less likely they are to be close to me!
Anything that stops lots of cars using a route that is being promoted by our councils and governments as being a recommended cycling route.
Does not seem to matter what ideas are brought forward Xplora either drivers, or cyclists, or both will be dissatisfied for some reason.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby find_bruce » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:58 pm

Thanks Aushiker, I was happy to take your word for it, but appreciate the references.

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby il padrone » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:59 pm

Xplora wrote:Any suggestions on appropriate traffic calming, sumgy?

I ask because I've found calming devices to be absolutely diabolical from a cyclist's perspective. The more space they have, the less likely they are to be close to me!
They call it 'living streets' - similar concepts as shared spaces, or in the Netherlands they also call them woonerfs (but these tend to be mainly residential).

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A Dutch woonerf
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This one a concept plan for a living street in Leichardt, Sydney.
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Last edited by il padrone on Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:18 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Mandatory helmet law?
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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby Xplora » Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:01 pm

Yep, those are nice malls, but they aren't even close to reality for suburban streets... I want calming that has a chance of installation!

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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby il padrone » Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:06 pm

Assumed you were asking for ideas about stuff that works, as opposed to the usual Australian local council 'pissing in the wind' :|
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Re: Bike safety: It’s a two-way street

Postby sumgy » Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:22 pm

il padrone wrote:Assumed you were asking for ideas about stuff that works, as opposed to the usual Australian local council 'pissing in the wind' :|
Agreed.
Why would you continue doing what we are doing and expecting a different outcome?

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